Home Gardens Crucial to Survival of Urban Bees
(CN) — Pollinating insects such as bees as crucial to agriculture, but new research revealed on Sunday found that home gardens in cities and towns are crucial to them as well, providing an average of 85% of their food.
In a study published Sunday in the Journal of Ecology, researchers from the University of Bristol and other universities in the U.K. detailed their findings and the importance of urban flora.
Scientists examined three home gardens and discovered that they produced a daily average of a teaspoon of ambrosia, a high-carbohydrate liquid in flowers that bees and other pollinators eat. Just one teaspoon is enough to feed thousands of bees, who in turn help maintain such gardens.
“We expected private gardens in towns and cities to be a plentiful source of nectar, but didn’t anticipate the scale of production would be to such an overwhelming extent. Our findings highlight the pivotal role they play in supporting pollinators and promoting biodiversity in urban areas across the country,” said Nicholas Tew, ecologist and lead author, in a statement.
The research team studied the nectar production of home gardens in four cities in the U.K.: Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds and Reading. The scientists measured nectar in almost 200 plant species and extracted the nectar from over 3,000 individual flowers.
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